Discussion Guide Introduction
Are you looking for a doable way to start deep conversations about faith and work for faculty and/or grad students? Or launch a faculty or grad group for the first time? Our discussion guide makes it easy to get started, whether your group is brand new to the topic or deeply experienced. It’s also designed to be flexible based on the schedule that works best for you.
We’ll guide you through an approachable tour of 4 different models for connecting faith and work: Loving Your Neighbor, Cultivating Virtues, Growing through Difficulty, and Connecting Ideas. Each unit includes 3 short readings from Christian academics. The authors distill an aspect of their experience connecting faith and work, as an encouragement to explore your own ways of doing it. We have created discussion questions for each entry, focused on helping you imagine your own ways of connecting faith and work in each model.
There are 12 readings to allow a variety of possible group formats. We recommend 3-6 week reading groups exploring 1-2 units at a time as one effective format. You could also read one reflection a month for a calendar year, or one a week for a semester. Each unit can stand alone, if you’re looking for a short 3-week discussion group. Used together, the units also form a whole arc that helps you develop new ideas about connecting your faith and your work.
Do just one unit or all 4, and consider pairing it with a retreat. Order our Scholar’s Compass booklet to find all these articles and more in book form, or access them online through the links in the unit reading guides. Either way, use our study guide questions to help your group explore further.Â
Order Scholar’s Compass Booklets
Explore Online Retreat Guide
Unit 1 (3 readings): Loving Your Neighbor
Discussion Guide & Questions
Readings at a Glance
Grading as a Spiritual Practice
Unit 2 (3 readings): Cultivating Virtues
Discussion Guide & Questions
Readings at a Glance
James Clerk Maxwell’s Accidental Invention of the Color Photograph: Humility in Research and Life
Learning Scholarly Virtues from the Iliad
Unit 3 (3 readings): Navigating Difficulty
Discussion Guide & Questions
Readings at a Glance
Navigating the Rapids, Part 1: When It Doesn’t Go As You Expect
Surely the Lord Was in the Rare Books Room, Part 1
Surely the Lord Was in the Rare Books Room, Part 2
Unit 4 (3 readings): Connecting Ideas
Discussion Guide & Questions
Readings at a Glance
Integrating Faith and Archaeology
Want to order hard copy Scholar’s Compass booklets? Need an online retreat guide featuring other Scholar’s Compass reflections? These are both optional but helpful tie-ins to our online discussion guide.Â
Order Scholar’s Compass Booklets
Explore Retreat Guide